A global weather phenomenon that would typically keep ocean temperatures lower across the Great Barrier Reef may not be enough to stop another mass coral bleaching this coming summer, according to the marine park's chief scientist.
Water shortages are now affecting more than 3 billion people around the world, as the amount of fresh water available for each person has plunged by a fifth over two decades, data has shown.
Air travel is heating the climate at approximately three times the rate of the sector's carbon dioxide emissions alone, report finds, with major policy implications.
New research shows that, as the planet warms, deciduous trees in temperate European forests are losing their leaves earlier, and that could reduce the amount of CO2 forests will remove from the atmosphere in the decades ahead.
The world's nations are racing to rein in the climate crisis while maintaining strong economies. Troublingly, Canada is far behind in this time-critical race to build a low-carbon economy. Our decades of foot-dragging have put both our future prosperity and our climate at risk.
Emissions data for greenhouse gas emitters was released by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in October, revealing the largest polluters in Franklin County.
Ontario plans to raise by half the ethanol content required in gasoline in a move to fight climate change that could also dangle benefits to Southwestern Ontario's vast corn belt.
What a dreadful year. But, still, we don't have to venture far to find some silver linings in the toxic clouds.
<p>Environmental journalism rises from humanity's latest ash piles. Our professional cousins, health journalism folks like <a href="https://www.lauriegarrett.com/the-coming-plague" target="_blank">Laurie Garrett</a> and <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-race-to-find-the-next-pandemic-before-it-finds-us/" target="_blank">Maryn McKenna</a>, saw their worst-case pandemic projections borne out, at horrible cost. Of course, vindicating some under-appreciated journalists is not worth 260,000 American lives. However, we should be thankful and recognize the public good that reporters do for our understanding of what may be to come. </p><p>Health journalists aren't alone—for decades environmental journalists have, too, sounded the alarm early on coming crises. </p><p>Here's short list, the Clean Dozen if you will, which I've arbitrarily limited to Americans whose long careers have served as unfortunately accurate heralds of some deep problems. Please hold your applause until the alphabetical roll call has been completed:</p><p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/borenbears?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank">Seth Borenstein</a>:</strong> AP's Washington-based science/environment guy is meticulous but hard-hitting, and has been a favored target of climate deniers (although Seth and the AP won't call them "deniers").</p><p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/caseybukro?lang=en" target="_blank">Casey Bukro</a>:</strong> Started the environment beat at the Chicago Tribune in 1967 and is still active in 2020.</p><p><strong>Roger Caras</strong> (d. 2001): Ranged from cute animal stories to hard-hitting tales of environmental abuse. He was a broadcast news pioneer at ABC.</p><p><strong><a href="https://calmatters.org/author/marlacone/" target="_blank">Marla Cone</a></strong>: Longtime <em>LA Times</em> beat reporter and first editor of <em>EHN </em>and <em>Daily Climate, </em>she's written for years on toxics from Santa Monica Bay to the supposedly pristine Arctic.</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.loe.org/about/steve.html" target="_blank">Steve Curwood</a></strong>: Shared a Pulitzer in the 1970's at the <em>Boston Globe, </em>now approaching three decades of hosting/showrunning/fundraising for <em>Living on Earth, </em>the Public Radio newsmag where he lets me blab for five minutes a week.</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Turning-Tide-Saving-Chesapeake-Bay/dp/1559631007" target="_blank">Tom Horton</a></strong>: Arguably knows more about the science and politics of the Chesapeake Bay than anyone, starting at the <em>Baltimore Sun</em> in 1974.</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/contributors/k/jane-kay/" target="_blank">Jane Kay</a></strong>: Wrote a groundbreaking series for the <em>Arizona Daily Star </em>in the 1980's on TCE contamination; later starred on the beat for both San Francisco papers. Family bonus points: Her brother is legendary AP muckraker Mort Rosenblum.</p><p><strong>Paul Nyden</strong> (d. 2018): Stood up to the coal industry as a coal-stained wretch at the <em>Charleston Gazette, </em> where he mentored a younger legend, Ken Ward, Jr.</p><p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/MSchleifstein?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank">Mark Schleifstein</a></strong>: After Katrina and the disappearance of Louisiana's coastline, his editors stopped deriding his "disaster porn" a few shared Pulitzers ago.</p><p><strong>Phil Shabecoff</strong>: Early adapter at the <em>New York Times,</em> and later the founder of <em>Greenwire</em>. </p><p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/mshebala?lang=en" target="_blank">Marley Shebala</a></strong>: Quiet, steely muckraker on the Navajo Reservation who's exposed corruption, bringing down two tribal governments.</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.cnn.com/profiles/bill-weir-profile" target="_blank">Bill Weir</a></strong>: ABC <em>Nightline </em>alum who does solid work as the only true full-time national TV climate guy at CNN.</p><p>There are, of course, many more, and future lists won't be limited to TV, radio, and newspapers (whatever <i>they are.) </i></p>
<p><em>Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist and can be reached at <a href="mailto:pdykstra@ehn.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pdykstra@ehn.org</a></em><em> or <a href="https://twitter.com/pdykstra" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@pdykstra</a>.</em></p><p><em>His views do not necessarily represent those of Environmental Health News, The Daily Climate or publisher, Environmental Health Sciences.</em><br></p><p><em>Banner photo credit: COVID testing in New York in April 2020. (Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nyng/49798592893/in/photolist-2iSwNHc-2k41QxP-2iQpJ3v-2iSHPA2-2k42vtR-2k1S1jT-2iVnrHu-2jPHMH9-2j4xwU3-2jpGing-2iZDqgn-2j4NSb6-2k3X1vp-2k41QBw-2iNviJ4-2jFPbqG-2k3X1uh-2iWKex8-2jQyNSR-2k42v97-2jUQ6ic-2iGbMBZ-2iBv3fR-2jtCXVX-2iGbMHF-2iG7yCB-2k3X1qQ-2iSzCdG-2j93A5w-2j7Lyb2-2iNviHh-2iNx1BF-2iYAEC3-2iYxVqC-2iZcCko-2jtAanH-2iYxVtP-2k2qgkx-2iYAEEn-2j4QSD4-2k42uN2-2jkUMpZ-2jeh4Ge-2j8jxSE-2iEWoWo-2iWoRNX-2iLZmjF-2k41Qaz-2iKqC8b-2k41Q8L" target="_blank">New York National Guard</a>) </em></p>
The immense project would have been one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines, but regulators found it “contrary to the public interest” due to environmental risks in the pristine Alaskan tundra.
Crown lawyers assert the nation lost territorial rights by not consistently occupying their lands. Experts say the argument is strange, possibly illegal and a step back for reconciliation
Benjamín Rodríguez Grandez, a leader from the Huitoto tribe who dedicated his life to preserving Indigenous customs and the natural resources they depend on in the Peruvian Amazon, died of COVID-19 on July 16, 2020.
US president-elect Joe Biden has chosen a seasoned diplomat to spearhead his climate policy. The long-term goal of going carbon-neutral by 2050 is bold and clear, but is it still achievable?
Over the next three years, there could be enough solar-generated electricity in Louisiana to power 60,000 homes in a state rich with oil and gas and crisscrossed with pipelines.
15-metre-tall ancestors of modern-day, cultivated bananas contain the precious genetics that could save the popular fruit from climate change, pests and disease.
An E.P.A. investigation has found that the owners of more than half a million diesel pickup trucks have installed devices to defeat emissions controls and boost pollution.
Joe Biden was accused during the presidential campaign of planning for the end of oil, but some analysts say the president-elect won't hurt - and may actually help - the industry.
Can you put a price on pollution? Some of the world's biggest economies are doing just that as they wrestle with how to make good on grand pledges to tame planet-warming emissions.
Boris Johnson's "jet zero" goal of a commercial transatlantic flight producing no carbon emissions by 2025 is a "gimmick", according to experts, who say technology alone cannot solve the impact of global aviation on the climate crisis.
John Kerry's two-year-old granddaughter sat on his lap as the then-secretary of state signed the U.N. Paris agreement on climate change on behalf of the United States in 2016. When President-elect Joe Biden named him the first-ever climate envoy for national security on Monday, Kerry posted a photo of that moment on Twitter.
The county most at risk for coastal flooding is not in Florida, North Carolina or New Jersey, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It's not even on a coast.
On Nov. 3, Denver voters approved Measure 2A, which increases the city's sales tax rate by .25 percent and should generate between $20 and $40 million a year to combat climate change and economic disparity in the Mile High City.
A new strategy is being produced to help protect Christchurch Bay and harbour from the elements for the next 100 years. It will assess how to manage coastal erosion and associated risks, and take into account the effects of climate change, such as sea level rise and increased storms
The European Union has drafted a deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, against 1990 levels, a target it hopes its 27 members will endorse at a summit next month, the document showed.
“It's easy in the Northeast to think that we don't have anything to worry about, but it’s important for us to remember that these things can happen here.”
Colstrip, Montana, has been a poster child for the kind of coal mining community that looked to Donald Trump to bring back the industry and save their town.
President-elect Joe Biden sent tremors through boardrooms and world capitals yesterday by picking a climate-oriented foreign policy team. Expect the earthquakes to continue.
